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That’s the lead sentence of
a recent abstract on PubMed.gov. My gut reaction was something like, “No shit!?”
GBM has struck hard and
close to me lately with a close friend from college and a close
friend-of-a-friend about a block from our house being diagnosed with
Glioblastoma. Emotionally, I just feel like I’ve been hit by a MACK truck.
If you are new to brain
tumors, here’s a quick and bleak primer on GBM from Medscape.com: “Glioblastoma
multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant tumor of the central
nervous system. GBM advances rapidly and tends to recur after treatment,
resulting in severe disability and death. The 1-year and 2-year relative
survival rates for GBM are 29.6% and 9.0%, respectively. Only 3.4% of patients
with a GBM diagnosis survive more than 5 years, but life expectancy for GBM in
the United States has been increasing. Early identification of the tumor,
surgical resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy improve the prognosis
for GBM.” http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/585174
So the study’s title, “Apoptosis-inducing
effects of Melissa officinalis L. essential oil in glioblastoma multiforme
cells”, grabbed by eyeballs and yanked them into the rest of the abstract,
which says, “Current therapies for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are not
effective.
This study investigated the activity of the M. officinalis essential
oil (EO) and its major component (citral) in GBM cell lines. Both EO and citral
decreased the viability and induced apoptosis of GBM cells as demonstrated by
DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activation. Antioxidant prevented
citral-induced death, indicating its dependence on the production of reactive
oxygen species. Citral downmodulated the activity and inhibited the expression
of multidrug resistance associated protein 1 (MRP1). These results show that
EO, through its major component, citral, may be of potential interest for the
treatment of GBM.” See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24745610
Since I don’t understand
almost everything in this abstract, I’m not totally sure what it means, but it
seems to provide a flicker of hope.
Of course this just begged
another question, “What are essential oils?” So, being the Googler I am, I
zipped over to WebMD.com and learned that “Aromatherapy, or essential oils
therapy, is using a plant's aroma-producing oils (essential oils) to treat
disease.” (See http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/tc/aromatherapy-essential-oils-therapy-topic-overview
for more info).
Somehow, that didn’t make me
jump for joy. This doesn’t sound like a miracle cure for GBM.
Having said all that, “Essential
Oils” are a hot topic on ABTA.org’s Inspire
website: https://www.inspire.com/search?query=essential+oils&submit.x=11&submit.y=8
At this moment, color me
yellow for curious and hoping, just hoping, that we’ve found a new weapon to
use against this monstrous disease.
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